My husband left the car in the on position all night and came out to find the car dead. He was desperate to get home (dont know why I was enjoying the break:)) His daughter has a mercedes which the battery is not east to get to I guess. Anyway they do have a street worthy golf cart so he tried to jump it with it. NOTHING. Now it had to be towed to mechanic he has replaced fuses and ignition switch some things come on but the car still won’t start. The mechanic took a 1250 deposit. I have a cap of 3000k. This car is in great shape and is paid off I really want to keep it.

If that golf cart was electric your husband zapped everything with at least 36 volts. Are telling us that you had to give the mechanic $1250 to start with and your credit card has a $3000 limit. I say find another mechanic and explain what happened. This one sounds like he is guessing.

Yes he said he had already put time and those parts into it and would give me a refund if he does not spend 1250. He does say this is a guessing game. It was an electric golf cart. I have been told we proboably fried the brain. Is this fixable without breaking the bank?

This can’t be a real automotive shop. I have never had to put up a deposit even for the expensive Corvette transmission. Sure he has put time and parts into it but are they the right parts? I really do not understand why he replaced the ignition switch.

This can’t be a real automotive shop. I have never had to put up a deposit even for the expensive Corvette transmission.

The real good shops will get a deposit for something like this. Otherwise the shop may put a few hours into the car, the customer decides to bail, and the shop is left giving away hundreds of dollars with a junk car that doesn’t run cluttering up the lot.

If this was a 36 volt golf cart I expect this to be a very expensive repair. A competent shop however should not make this a guessing game. I would expect that within 3-4 hours of diagnostic time a reasonably accurate estimate can be made for repairs.

I’m in agreement with a deposit on some procedures but 1250 seems a bit much to me. I’d think a few hundred dollars should get a mechanic to the point where he says “I think it’s…” or “I have no effin’ clue”.

Maybe the OP could clarify the part about not starting. Does that mean the engine is cranking over with the starter motor but it won’t run or does it mean the engine does not rotate at all and there is nothing but stone silence when the key is turned?

asemaster your first paragraph is exactly what he said he has already put time and parts so if we bail he stuck. This mechanic is a one man shop fixes more ferraris , porches and bentleys. My husband says the car doesn’t even act like it got a battery in it. I guess if I could always have it towed to a chevy dealership. This is not very encouraging.

I have to agree with Volvo’s suggestion that he may have fried everything when he tried to jump it with the golf cart. My guess is that the mechanic knows this may be a major job on the electrical system and for some reason not disclosed here he has doubts about the OP’s ability or willingness to pay. If he specializes in exotic luxury vehicles, he may not even want to get into what may turn out to be an electrical systems nightmare.

It isn’t going to help now, but for the future you and he should really get an auto club membership. This could all have been avoided.

For this vehicle, I think wherever you bring it you’re going to have a steep bill to pay to get it repaired.

I have an electric golf cart. It has 6 8 volt batteries hooked up in series so it is 48 volts. This is a pretty standard set up, and it is a lot of power. I don’t know where they would have connected the jumper cables so it is anyone’s guess how much juice hit the car’s electrical system. What a mess!

A car had been jumped with 24V, which damaged the pcm, but apparently nothing else

Here’s where it got interesting . . .

The scan tool would communicate with the pcm
The engine would crank over normally, but it wouldn’t start

Nevertheless, when that new pcm was installed and married to the vehicle, the engine immediately started. And that was the end of the story

I’m fairly certain that OP’s car has a “remote” jump post in the engine bay. Many cars have the vehicle in the trunk, under the rear seat, or in some even more out of the way place. But they usually have provisions for jumping the car, without access to the battery. It’s usually pretty easy to spot, and the owner’s manual should mention it

If u were at daughters house, u can use her homeowners insurance for her attempt to jump your car, homeowners insurance covers damage to other people property. If u drop a friends camera your insurance will pay for it. NO deductible. Your daughter did provide golf cart as power source. Her cart DID cause elec damage to your car. My dad was at my house. I jumped his car with my golf cart. Car is fried. Simple story. U did not know 36v would damage the 12v car.

Maybe, but might be an easy way to get on the uninsurable list that they claim doesn’t exist.

I think I would get it to a regular repair shop or even dealer though rather than a guy that works on exotic foreign cars. Once I had my car in and they questioned the computer being at fault. They had two spare used ones they could hook up to verify that it wasn’t the computer. Certainly the computer could be fried and either a used one or new one could be installed after testing. Also might be the cheap fusible link, and possibly other miscellaneous electronic controls, but I’d want someone that can do some better trouble shooting first. Like “yep we plugged in a test computer and it started right up so do you want a new one or a used one?”.

The closest thing the TB has to a jump post is a threaded stud inside of the UH fuse box. The battery cable terminates at a lug on this stud and that goes into the main fuse.

Knowing the history, the first thing I would do is verify that the fuse block has power- both the UH and rear seat boxes. Then hook up a scan tool to the ECM to verify communications. etc. The point is, I would not condemn the thing without first doing some very simple checks.

Even then, this would be an ideal vehicle for me to pick up cheaply. It has tons of life left and I could swap out or fix what was needed relatively cheaply. If I had to pay someone- not so much…

I don’t think madRiver understands that this was a deposit amount with the understanding of refunding what was not charged. Of course I would not have agreed to myself. A diagnostic fee yes. but a 1250.00 deposit-No.

It’s very difficult to tell the extent of the damage. Normally if somebody was attempting a jump from a golf cart, they’d verify the voltage by measuring it first. Did that happen? If not, could they go back and measure it now? Since only the person(s) who did the jump procedure know where they put the jumper cables on the golf cart. It is possible it was 12 volts but they got the polarity wrong. That would be a different diagnosis than if they got the polarity right, but the wrong voltage. I think that’s the place to start, figure out exactly what occurred first. That will give the shop something to go on. It’s entirely possible there’s just one or two simple to fix problems that are preventing the car from starting now. I expect OP you already understand if you don’t like the requirement for an up-front payment, you can find a different shop that doesn’t require that. In my opinion, if you want your car fixed, it is best to find the best shop, and go along with what they request as pre-payment, within reason, rather than shopping for the lowest price or no-pre-payment.